Fresh Direct, one of the nation’s leading providers of foodservice fresh produce, is marking a major milestone as it celebrates sixty years of supplying Britain’s chefs, a landmark that underscores the company’s evolution from a small Oxfordshire greengrocer into one of the country’s most influential fresh food specialists.
Founded in 1966, Fresh Direct has grown into a national business with a reputation for quality and consistency. The company has expanded its British grower network, invested in the fast-growing fresh prep sector and strengthened its sustainability credentials. In a first for foodservice, all contracted British growers now hold full LEAF Marque certification, a benchmark that reinforces its commitment to responsible farming and long-term supply resilience. Today, Fresh Direct supports thousands of chefs across restaurants, hotels, pubs, education, healthcare and leisure building on a six-decade track record of trusted sourcing, culinary expertise and industry-leading service across the hospitality sector.
The anniversary is being marked with a number of activities, including a new celebratory video that showcases the company’s heritage, the colleagues who have shaped its culture and the growers who have been central to its success. The film charts Fresh Direct’s journey from local roots to national scale and highlights the passion for fresh food that continues to drive its teams.
Andy Pembroke, Managing Director of Fresh Direct, tells Wholesale Manager how the company has lasted so long and about the biggest challenges the sector has faced in recent years.
Congratulations on Fresh Direct reaching its 60th birthday. To what do you attribute this longevity?
Much of Fresh Direct’s success comes from its ability to bring the supply chain closer together, helping customers understand the changing dynamics of growing produce and supporting growers to understand the evolving customer and consumer.
We’re fortunate to have a wealth of expertise and talent within the business from our farm manager working on the ground in Spain through to the chefs and produce experts helping customers decide what’s right for their business.
We’ve got great people who are passionate about produce and about the customers we serve, which is why we’re proud to have long term partnerships with not only our suppliers, but also some of the best hospitality operators in the business.
What activities are planned to celebrate the 60th anniversary?
Our 60th is a moment in time that allows us to recognise our successes, but also to look forward to the future. Our 60th anniversary video is a fantastic overview of the business and will be the focal point for our celebrations, and we hope people will take the time to celebrate with us on social media.
Can you give us a brief overview of Fresh Direct’s history?
We’ve been based in Bicester since the company began back in 1966. Starting as a Greengrocer, H&H Fruiterers, it grew to 32 shops, along with a central refrigerated warehouse.
The business continued to grow and develop, but the main catalyst came with the acquisition by Sysco, in 2016, which brought new ideas and investment, taking the business to new levels. The investment in the business has helped to build service capability, providing solutions for the long term.
What have been some of the biggest challenges for the sector in recent years?
The weather has undoubtedly been our biggest challenge in the past couple of years, with storms across last winter, followed by a summer of extreme heat and dry weather across the UK and Europe. This has created volatility for several crops, while higher labour, fuel, transport, fertiliser and packaging costs continue to put pressure on growers and supply chains.
Despite these challenges, we’re entering the winter season from a position of strength. Our procurement teams have been working proactively throughout the season, securing strong contracts with growers we trust and who have the same focus as us on quality and availability. The enduring relationships we have built with growers and suppliers are particularly important when markets become challenging, giving us greater visibility, flexibility and confidence in our supply.
As with all businesses, rising costs has also been a problem driven by the ongoing cost- of-living pressures, with geopolitical uncertainty and conflict adding to the challenges. This has hit hospitality particularly hard. To help mitigate costs and support our customers, we continue to invest in the supply chain to drive efficiencies and cost to serve.
How has Fresh Direct strengthened its sustainability credentials?
As part of Sysco, we’ve launched our strategy to secure the future of food, including focusing on resilient supply chains, transforming operations and growing customer sustainability. Practically, this means things like becoming the first foodservice wholesaler to source all contracted British produce from LEAF Marque accredited growers. And driving forward our partnerships with suppliers to implement more sustainable farming initiatives, based on regenerative farming principles that aim to promote biodiversity and nature while producing food.
We’ve also worked hard to reduce or remove packaging, for example, removing plastic from berries and mushrooms. This continues to be a key business priority.
With fresh produce, surplus food is sometimes unavoidable and for those moments, we work with City Harvest and FareShare to ensure surplus doesn’t become waste.
How many products do you supply and what categories do you cover?
Our lifeblood is fresh produce, and we currently have around 2,000 SKUs, as part of an overall catalogue of 4,000 products, including diary, eggs, meat and fish. We also have access to thousands more through the wider Sysco network.
How are your own label ranges performing?
Our main own label range is Fresh Kitchen, which is performing incredibly well. It’s doubled the size of the operation, creating hand-prepared sauces, pickles and other products designed to take the strain away from commercial kitchens by providing restaurant quality produce.
How important is digital to your offering?
Very important, and increasingly so. We continue to invest in our digital capability both customer-facing and within our own supply chain, including a particular focus on ecomms.
How has the foodservice industry evolved in recent years?
Foodservice has had a really tough time from COVID, through staffing crises and the cost-of-living concerns. This means that customers are increasingly looking to us to find innovative ways of supporting them. It’s why we’ve invested in propositions like Fresh Prep and Fresh Kitchen to ensure that we can support customers and their evolving menu offers while help carrying some of the burden of preparation costs.
What made you want to get into wholesaling?
The people at Bicester inspire me every day, it’s a fantastic place to work, full of people who are inventive, resilient, solutions-based and great fun. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a wholesaler?
Obviously, there are always day to day challenges, but we have a great team that can deal with those. What we can’t control is the weather and, when your entire business is built around fresh produce it can be a real challenge. It’s why we spend so much time and energy in developing our relationships with suppliers, expanding our sourcing origins and improving supply chains, so that we can make sure that we’re doing everything to ensure we provide our customers with the great products and reliable service they need.
What plans do you have to continue growing the business?
We have ambitious plans to continue to grow the business. It’s been an incredible 60 years, but the business’ potential is enormous. We will continue to work closely with suppliers and customers to ensure that we deliver exceptional service, market-leading availability and the expertise and intelligence that makes a real difference.
We’re increasingly working more closely with other companies across Sysco, which gives them access to innovative produce while opening new markets for us.
We’re very excited about providing market-leading products, great innovation and fantastic customer service for the next 60 years!
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